Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali believes it is not PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim who is God's gift to all Malaysians - but rather Anwar's arch-nemesis, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"Allah's gift to all Malaysians is Mahathir. He is the jewel of the country," Ibrahim said at a meeting with reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

Ibrahim, who claimed that Perkasa was not taking any sides in the ongoing spat between Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Mahathir, said the NGO is only taking sides with the "truth".

"We are not supporting Mahathir blindly, but since he is just asking for the truth, then, in a way, we are siding him.

"It doesn't matter whether you are the prime minister or not. Everything must be based on facts," he said.

Ibrahim also said Mahathir ( left ) was not the type of person who used people. He would rather want his supporters to support him voluntarily.

"He never makes use of people, he fights his own battles. He is such a gentleman, truly one kind of a man," he said.

Saying that the issue was blown out of proportion, Ibrahim said Mahathir did not accuse Najib, but merely asked questions.

"When he said that BN will lose in the next general election if Najib does not resign, that's his opinion.

"Talk at coffee shops is that BN might lose. So he is just repeating what others are saying," he said.

The Perkasa leader also believes that Najib's supporters should not condemn Mahathir, for doing so would only strengthen Mahathir.

"They say that during Mahathir's time, there were also projects which failed. He's also a human being, there were things that did not work out, like (steel producer) Perwaja. 

"But who would have thought Putrajaya would replace Kuala Lumpur (as the federal administrative centre)? Who would have thought of building skyscrapers like the KLCC? Overall, Mahathir transformed the country into a great nation," he said.

Hitting out at those who criticised Mahathir, Ibrahim told such critics to look into the mirror first.

"You want to condemn him but who are you to do so? He is in the category of world leaders, look how many million hits he gets on his blog.

"Even (singer) Siti Nurhaliza (Tarudin) ( left ) and (actress) Rozita Che Wan support him," he said.

He also argued against those who say that Mahathir had an interest in criticising Najib. 

"What interest? He doesn't want to be prime minister anymore. And if people say it's for his son's (Mukhriz Mahathir) interests, he would not do this, he would not be making noise."

Murder motive

Meanwhile, on the murder motive of Altantuya Shaariibuu, Ibrahim opined that Najib should have answered Mahathir's questions by saying that, he, too, would want to know the motive behind the killing.

"As the prime minister, he should have said he wants to know the motive, he should have said that he wanted justice."

Ibrahim also said history would only repeat itself if Najib  only focused on getting the support of Umno members.

"Umno's survival depends on the rakyat and it will not survive with Umno members alone. Even within Umno there is a split.

"Najib ( left ) must win the hearts of the rakyat if he wants to win elections.

"He must win the hearts of Umno members only during party elections," he said.

Commenting further on support given by Umno to Najib, with Umno Youth in particular hoisting him up when they showed their support, Ibrahim believes that Najib himself did not agree to it, judging from his facial expression.

"He looked helpless. I'm sure he was worried that people might think he had asked them to do that," he said.